Dairy major Ballantyne to open shop in India

KOLKATA: Australian dairy and food ingredient major, Ballantyne Foods, is planning to set up its unit in India to cater to their huge customer base in south-east Asian markets.

Prior to that, the company, which is the world's largest producers of canned butter, is targeting to increase its market share in the Indian bakery, biscuit, airline catering industry and the F&B industry as a whole.

The Indian unit will initially start off as a logistics centre with warehousing and distribution facility. With time, it plans to open a manufacturing and R&D facility to cater to their markets in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Middle-East.

The company is concentrating on the food flavour, food colour and cheese powder range of food ingredients for supply to the Indian biscuit industry. It is already supplying to Britannia, Parle and Priya.

"We are currently shipping one container of our products to India. But by this year-end, we expect to ship nearly six containers worth about $500,000," said Hemmat S Nasrallah, spokesperson, Ballantyne Foods.

Ballantyne is also targeting the mini-butter product segment to be packaged in plastic tubs instead of the conventional foil packing prevalent in Indian markets. This product category is designed for the airline and hotel catering industry, Mr Nasrallah said.